Ethereal
by Lolita Toxica
Summary: Sometimes (Every day), you just got to take a (few) step (leaps) back (forward) to move forward (backward).
1. Prologue

_KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!_

An apartment door slid open. A tall black-haired woman stood in the other side of the door with an annoyed yet groggy expression in her light green eyes. Her long hair messed and tangled coupled with her light pink and gray baggy clothing suggested that a catnap was interrupted.

"What do you want, officer?"

The obstacle to her Thursday afternoon nap was a male police officer, covered head to toe in his navy blue robotic suit with silver accents. The only way of identifying his humanity was a tiny strip of ebony skin and dark pink lips peeking through the bottom of his helmet.

"Deets, I need you _now_!"

That old nickname certainly woke her up.

* * *

Both the officer and the woman—now more put together with her hair in a tight ponytail, a taupe long coat, skinny black jeans and velvet boots—walked out of the apartment building's elevator. The woman looked even more pestered than before with the man.

"I can't believe you convinced me to do this!"

The officer and the lady stopped in their tracks. He pulled his helmet down to reveal his shame through his big orange eyes. He scratched his flattop dark hair.

"Burn, you're the police and you can't even talk to _her_!"

"Yo, she's scary, okay?" He said in a very hesitant voice. He was probably reliving the other times he spoke to the young woman. "She was his roommate, so I'm pretty sure she knows _something_ about this."

Deets walked out of the complex; Burn followed close behind. "Out of anyone, _you_ should be the one to talk to her! She'll be glad to see you!"

She could hear his sarcastic yet timid-sounding laugh. "Trust me, Sarah." He climbed his work mono-cycle and gestured the woman to get on it. "She mad."


	2. Deuteragonist

When they were teenagers, the dark rust-toned trash-heap that was Sector Nine hid many mysteries and legends. Word on the schools' hallways was to avoid that phantom sector to the best of their abilities or they would never be found. Of course, it was a parent's threat when their child acted up, but they lived that dreaded fantasy in their heads.

The older folk already conquered that fear… mostly because Sector Nine was one of the escape routes ten years ago. Many scavengers rummaged through it trying their best to live an upcycling lifestyle or resell used items. Maybe a tinkerer or two searched for hard-to-find parts to create the revolutionary new device that would get them out of poverty.

Burn never expected for the tinkerer to also be a little monster, but here they were searching for the elusive Frances Roche: alias Fizz, the Builder. Once an insecure yet brilliant young girl, she conquered Sector Nine's mysteries and worked alongside them.

Deep within the eerie sector, far away from Dr. Hong's mansion, laid a closed-off abandoned cement building. The pair stood in front of the heavy-metal door that suggested the building wasn't all that it seemed.

Burn touched the door with his robotic glove. "My equipment can't hack her door." He turned to the programmer. "She made a security program that constantly changes itself, so advance anti-locking techniques don't work."

She pulled a remote-looking device from her coat. "I'll freeze the program for a few seconds to be able to input the current passcode." She started to work with it. "But seriously, you can't talk to her?"

"You think I'm joking?" He scoffed.

"Something happened between you two or…?" She turned towards the man to witness the utter shock in his face.

"No! Absolutely not!"

"Then what's going on?"

He calmed down a bit. "Just… just wait and see."

The device beeped a successful tone while the heavy door slowly opened to a heavily-lit indoors. The pair entered the building.

The inside didn't match its outside at all. It was sleek and modern in ivory paneling. A small kitchen rested on the left with a black table with two seats. The rest of the open space consisted of a few inventions and robot parts on hanging on the walls. There was an elevator shaft at the end of the room. They walked towards the elevator.

"She's such a hermit. Going as far as having a secret lab…" Deets said as she and Burn entered the elevator.

He put his helmet back on. "You better not be—"

"No." He lifted his hands to exert his innocence to the woman's idea. "Just checking if she booby-trapped the basement."

They went down rather quickly after the officer scanned the lower level. A forceful blow echoed in the extremely organized basement. The walls were decorated with ranged weapons and small handheld devices. A lot of shelving held other devices they didn't dare touch as most of the inventor's creativity went to weaponry. The end of the room held a door that flickered on and off constantly.

The forceful blowing sound—they recognized it was a blow torch—stopped and the room fell into complete silence. A woman coughed and something with plastic hit the floor. They could also hear her delicately putting a few things down.

A blue light softly glowed in the small room. The glow got stronger and the young woman came out of the room. A redhead with forest green eyes, black oil and dirt smeared in her bangs, her sweaty forehead and her baggy dark green blouse and oversized jeans that were held by a woven belt tied in a knot. She had a light blue holographic ponytail hovered over her natural hair, tied in a messy bun.

The young builder's eyes darted between the woman and the officer. She couldn't hide the slight glimmer of surprise. "Huh?" she said a bit annoyed as she finally recognized the pair. "You two are a year too late."

"You never said Thursdays were your days off!" Deets walked up to the redhead.

"Yeah, just didn't want to hang out with you."

Burn walked behind his dark-haired friend. "I see what you mean," she whispered to him. She turned to Fizz. "Who hurt you?"

"Well, the list is ongoing, but a few I can think of on the top of my head are—"

"Look." Even though he was still intimidated by the inventor, he stood next to Deets. "I'm sure I found Ed's hiding spot!"

Fizz cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms. She was extremely peeved by the situation the pair was trying to bring her into. "He left for a reason!" The redhead yelled angrily. "Leave him alone!" She stomped back into her workshop.

Whenever she got mad, they would leave her alone; but this was more important. Burn showed Deets to the workshop. Inside were many metallic shelves with organized boxes of materials. The inventor stood with a blow torch and a welding mask. Her holographic ponytail held a weapon in place. Sparks flew between the two women.

"Why are you being so difficult?" the tall woman inquired with a bit of agitation.

The redhead removed her mask. "You're still here? Move on!" She playfully smirked—one that rubbed Sarah the wrong way. "Didn't you get into enough trouble the first time around? Getting kidnapped by Bedlam wasn't enough?"

That certainly boiled her face. "Can you stop acting like a child for _one_ second?"

As both women went back and forth, Burn slowly realized he would never ask Deets for a favor… not a Fizz-related favor, just a favor in general.

"Aren't your parents sick and tired of getting in trouble with bureaucrats? I swear they made most of the technology we're trying to destroy today!"

"I've had it with you!" Deets was about to slap Fizz, but her hologram grabbed the woman's arm before it could harm its owner. The redhead didn't react to the gesture. Her eyes told the programmer she actually expected it. It just pissed her off even more.

"It's a multipurpose holo-solid that I can control through brainwaves," the redhead explained. "It's still in the prototype phase back at work. It'll collapse a lot of industries in the near future… at least the ones that are still alive after Bedlam. Through the collapse of many, we steer correctly to the north. Slowly, but surely."

She turned to the confused pair. She looked sad… almost remorseful. "We fought about it… last year. It hurt him; it hit close to home." She sat cross-legged on the floor as the hologram slipped off the woman's arm. "He left everything we built for him…"

The dark-haired woman stood frozen out of complete confusion and anger. Her arm was floating in place ready to assault thin air. She didn't know what to feel anymore. One second, she got offended; the next, Fizz turned the conversation around.

Deets kneeled in front of her. Violence didn't solve violence. It was compassion. This was her friend of many years. She knew the young woman was a very caring person deep down inside. She couldn't stay mad at the young woman.

"I honestly don't know what you're feeling right now. Betrayal? Animosity? Withdraw? But isn't it time to patch things up with Ed? Even today, you _care_ about him!"

"You two had your differences; everyone does! I'm sure he left because he cares for your safety as much as you care for his," Burn explained.

Fizz stood up slowly.

She walked to her workbench. She stood there stoically—her back to her old friends. The ponytail hologram waved back and forth in thoughtful motion. It stood still once its owner spoke.

"Well!" Fizz said loudly yet in a sarcastic tone. "There's no way of getting you both out of my back and I'm already behind schedule. Oh dear me, I guess I have to work overnight to finish my electroregulator shotgun."

The hologram circled the young woman. She started typing on the monitor her hologram created for her. Deets and Burn were relieved.


	3. Wistful

The navy blue mono-cycle with the pair traveled a pavement street through an abandoned industrial sector. It was murky, oxidized, and rusty—any word that described the dark warm colors that intruded on the metal beams and splotched the moldy gray walls of destroyed factories. The sky reflected the mustard yellow color from the lights of upper sectors.

Behind them, Fizz traveled with the aid of her hologram. It hung from her hair bun, fell behind her and curved below her feet to create an odd-vehicle she could control as freeline skates. She wore an updated version of her lavender and violet bodysuit with chrome accessories such as a belt and weapon straps on her thighs.

They really hadn't spoken since they left Sector Nine. Deets understood what Burn was trying to convey about their friend. She doesn't say anything; she just lashes out to get people away from her. Either it was for her cynical amusement or the repercussion of Ed's disappearance.

But there was that glimmer of hope, she was there with them! A bit annoyed, but she could've denied their request, kicked them out of her lab, hacked Burn's suit and many other harmful actions to get them out of her space. With that thought, they confirmed Fizz was still that caring little girl they first met through their job in Dojo Deliveries.

"Yo, where's the place? I want to be home by nine to watch the game!"

Burn checked the time through his computerized helmet. "It's only five!"

"Considering it's you guys: we're gonna fight something, get angry at each other, get over it, fight again and learn some kind of lesson. If we can skip the lesson and the emotional turmoil, that would be great!"

Scratch that.

The group stopped in an exit turn that headed towards the lower sectors. The crew got out of their vehicles and looked down the bridge. Under the street, lay an intricate-designed chromed base. There was an opening was in the center of the circular base.

A pair of turquoise gloves suddenly squeezed Fizz's shoulders. She turned to see their old pal Loogie. He also wore a newer version of his old bodysuit and hover boots instead of the ancient relic that were in-line skates. Unlike the redhead, he seemed like her polar opposite. He hugged and greeted his old friends. His sentences were a bit more coherent… just a tad.

"What's this gig you got me?" he questioned the inventor as he inspected down on the bridge. He had this child-like excitement for the mysterious base.

Fizz looked up at Burn and Deets with a confident smirk. "What? You thought _I_ was gonna go down there?" She wrapped her arm around Loogie's shoulder. "Since we're having this sweet _sweet_ reunion," she continued in this long sarcastic tone. "Might as well get the daredevil himself to check this out."

Loogie grabbed the redhead tightly by the waist and she squealed in surprise. The pair watched in amusement as she tried to break it up. He jumped off the bridge with the inventor in tow. The pair looked down in horror; not because of the jump, but because of the death wish the man gave himself.

With his loose hand, he grappled onto the bridge for a safer landing. The young woman pushed herself away from him and she continued to fall to the platform. Her hologram divided to different long and thin strands, almost like spider legs, and landed her safely to the base. She angrily looked up at the man and he slowly descended to the base.

"You're welcome, m'lady!" the muffled voice of Dr. Pinch exclaimed to her. He was the hand that held onto the m-grab.

"You fucking nutjob!" She sighed and she motioned her friend to the opening.

"WHAT? WHY DOES _LOOGIE_ TAKE IT EASY? HE ALMOST _KILLED_ YOU!" Burn exclaimed angrily. Fizz gave him a hard time for lesser things he has done to her. Deets could be heard laughing out loud after his claim.

She ignored him as they walked cautiously towards the opening. The hologram went down first and illuminated part of the inside. They looked down. The coast was clear. This time, Fizz consented to be grabbed and both grappled down the hole. As they went down, the interior lit up slowly by its own in light blue.

"It recognized us as the Joker and Builder," she explained to her partner.

They soon found out that this was one of the bigger buildings in Progress City, if not the biggest. It was a giant hub with plenty of computer screens and many alien structures and floating beams. It matched the outside with the chrome finishes. There were various doors on the walls leading to what they imagine to be more rooms.

They landed. The redhead recalled her hologram and used it as a computer while Loogie skated to the nearest door to investigate.

She didn't need a confirmation from her invention that this had Ed's signature all over. She didn't even need a visual confirmation with the same style of architecture that several of Ed's devices had. She remembered his scent; she grew up with him: the _Lasergeddon_ animated series marathons, the weekly horror movie nights, the weekends in Fizz's room watching her tinker the various utilities in her home and both getting into trouble and grounded afterwards, them making up with her parents with baked goods…

Both moving out of her house to live together in an apartment, going out for drinks every Friday after they got off from college, messing around, lots of messing around, Fizz getting that job at Huckinson's Robotics Laboratory, getting home late every night because of a new biotech study, Ed making dinner every night, creating a new device to simplify her and Ed's life, presenting it to her boss and getting the money to create various prototypes, Ed finding out she could possibly destroy people's livelihoods with her holo-solid device…

Ed breathing heavily after entering her—oh, who was she kidding?— _their_ room, exclaiming about having a vision of an apocalyptic destruction by Bedlam, their heavy argument, more heavy breathing, even more heavy breathing, squealing and shrieking in delight…

She could smell him faintly.

She got out of her trance when Loogie grabbed her by the shoulders again. He stared worriedly at her. "You didn't go to the psych I recommended, did you?"

"I'm okay, Lou!" She tried to show normalcy with fake conviction. She could tell he wasn't buying it. "I-I'm just in shock how I ever missed this place's signal…" Still wasn't buying it. "…that's all."

He pulled out Dr. Pinch from his back pocket. "You don't get over people so easily! You put the blame all on yourself and idolize Ed to the point he's this omnipotent god and you forget he is just as human as you! Ed leaving was never your fault. I'm a hundred percent sure by now he left us—not only you, but _all of us_ —to _protect us_!"

She pushed him away. "That's what you keep on saying, Pinch! Every. Fucking. Time! And every time, it _still_ doesn't help me!" She still hadn't fathomed that she was fighting with a catfish puppet—product of her older friend's mental illness.

"Everybody, let's calm down now!" Loogie stood between his puppet and the young woman. "The captain of this ship is nowhere to be found!" He returned to the dilemma at hand and tried to steer away from any unnecessary conflict in the line of duty. They could argue on the phone some other time.

Fizz was dumbfounded. "He's not here?" a high pitch to her voice. She could also smell humidity with his faint smell. She was so entrapped in her memories that she forgot the other clues surrounding her.

"Cap'n left with his booty!"

She recalled her holo-solid once more. Indeed, it grabbed ahold of Ed's signature—from three weeks ago—but the actual man wasn't around at all. Even the devices like the Slammer and Optigogs were nowhere to be located. She should've known it wouldn't be that easy! Getting a hold of Ed was like grabbing air with your fingertips: close to impossible!

After that punch in the gut, Fizz and Loogie ascended back to the bridge to meet back with their friends. With a loud "Go fuck yourselves!" and a red face of pure anger, Frances left them all.


	4. Stagnation

Frances forgot about the game at nine.

She forgot that she had to go to work in eight hours.

She forgot she had to make up for lost time after work for her own project.

But most importantly, she forgot where she was.

Her eyes were too puffy from crying in anger. The room was too blurry and dark to make over where she was. It was cold, she was covered in a bed sheet, she laid in softness, and her hair fell on her face. She figured out she managed to get back to her apartment, take off her bodysuit and scrunchie—the source of her holo-solid companion—and go to bed.

Memories from the afternoon entered her mind and she jerked in her bed to look for her phone. There were various messages: a co-worker's text message, a lost call and a text from her mom, a picture sent by her dad and… oh.

She stopped bothering with her phone because of various text and group messages from her Dojo friends. She decided to ignore them and answer a week later with some snarky apology.

She jerked once more to a more comfortable position. Maybe she could sleep away her frustrations, wake up feeling a bit better and call her mom before leaving to work. She probably wanted to ask how she was, what she'd been up to… and if she found out where Ed's been. When she would inevitably answer to her mom, she would start getting worried and soon an argument will happen and, and, and...

She was thinking of him.

"God fucking dammit…"

* * *

" _My child! How are you, my lovely child?"_

"Could be better, Mother," Fizz chuckled half-heartedly to her mom's small joke. She talked to her through a wireless headset on her ear. She brushed her teeth as her other hand tapped the skin near her eyes lightly. Her eyes didn't look that bad for crying a few hours ago. She had an oversized white crop top and dark grey yoga pants that hugged her thick thighs. One foot scratched the back of the other while she listened to her mother.

" _Did you see what your dad sent on the group chat?"_

"Didn't get a chance to see it. Where is he anyway?" She splashed water to her face before cleansing it.

" _Serbia eating pancakes."_

"Of course he was…" She rolled her eyes with a small smirk on her face. She dried herself with a nearby lavender towel. Her father liked to taunt her with pictures of food, especially during work hours. "So what do I owe you? You don't usually call me during the week."

" _Remember that your cousin is getting married this weekend, hun."_

Oh. Oh no.

"Can't I—"

" _Frances…"_

"Mother..."

She walked out of the bathroom to her small orderly kitchen to fetch herself some coffee. She grabbed the ivory mug, already prepared with bitter hot black liquid.

" _Don't you dare bail."_

She waved the mug around while she spoke. "Look, I'm not gonna pass the time saying, "Yup, still single." Might as well put it on a shirt and avoid talking to everyone. I would _literally_ be alone with no one to hang out." She took a sip while her mother spoke.

" _Why don't you invite one of your friends or a co-worker?"_

She choked on her coffee. She coughed for a bit. "Mom…" she groaned. She turned to her refrigerator. "And why can Dad skip and I can't? Tell 'em I'm busy or something!" She picked up some bagged sandwiches.

" _Your father is on a Seminar right now, Cissy. I would invite Edward to come with you, but… you know."_

She sighed. There was a pause between them. Her mother could hear the mug clinking onto the counter. "Fine… I'll figure something out."

Her mother sighed of relief. _"Oh, and Frances?"_

"Yeah?"

" _Love you."_

She smiled. "Love you too, Mom…"

* * *

The text she had received from her co-worker was for a favor. Unlike Fizz, Dr. Roche had to be more proper. The co-worker in question was from the Biotechnologies Department, her old department before transferring to the AI Robotics Department.

She walked into the impressively large building with a small lavender backpack on tow. Her hands were inside her black skinny jeans' pockets. She also wore a black turtleneck sweater and her hair was in a two-minute consumed bun.

She walked directly towards the Biotechnologies Department. She knocked on the nearest door and looked into the room. She saw her co-worker, Blake, sitting in the break room. He was in his mid-thirties, well-groomed black hair and small icy blue eyes hidden behind some square glasses. He wore a lab coat and a green nursing outfit. He walked up to her with folder on tow.

"What did you mess up this time?" She started walking with the man through the halls of the department.

" _I_ didn't do anything!" His voice was almost nasal.

"That's how it _always_ starts! You guys tend to forget you're working with _living_ , _breathing_ and seventy-eight percent _unfixable_ beings, not robots." This was Dr. Roche; Fizz would've made him quit his job. She stopped in her tracks to glare at him. "Tell me, did you study Biology? Biochemistry? Microbiology? Marine biology? Anything to do with the study of _living beings_?"

"Bio-engineering. Did _you_?" He raised his eyebrow. He met her when she started in their lab, but he was one of the few who recognized her from the courier industry that failed… seven years now? They were wiped clean when the military was solicited to haul materials and medicine for rebuilding Progress City. He didn't get offended by her attitude at all because she was well-known to be kind-hearted. Hell, she was there doing him a favor.

"When I was seventeen, I got bored during my Master's and did a second Bachelor in Biology to dabble in medicine. Would've actually done more with it, if I wasn't so busy starting my Doctorate. Now I have to clean up _your_ mess while I await some better compensation to get out of my college debt." He handed her the folder. She checked on it. "I swear you guys treat the rats better than the test trialers."

She entered a room without Blake. He waited for her outside the door. She looked at the many different scrubs, gloves and masks that were available in different sizes. When she found out the ones that were her size, she changed from her own clothes to the light blue scrubs. She walked out of the changing room into what looked like an operating room mixed with a workshop.

"Bring him out and stay with me afterwards. I want you to learn from your mistakes so I don't get pulled here once a month."

Blake speedily walked out of the operating room. While he pulled out a bed with a balding late fifties male patient with a sleek navy blue chromed prosthetic right arm and a hospital robe, Fizz prepared a tray with black tools, a few plastic bottles with liquids and oils and two pairs of rubber gloves. She picked up the folder again to read in better detail the patient's information.

"Hello, Mr. Donovan. I'm Dr. Roche and you've already met Dr. Hummel from your operation. What seems to be the problem?"

"My arm worked fine for the first few days, but then the pinky finger stopped moving. Then all of the fingers stopped working all together. The only thing they do… is vibrate." He lifted his prosthetic arm to show his fingers twitching.

"Does it do it all the time?" She grabbed his hand and tried to grasp it. The hand didn't react, but the fingers kept on trembling. She put her ear on his hand and heard a slight white noise emitting from the fingers.

"Not all the time. It happens more at my job! It's the only place I can call my wife."

"Oh… so you live in the devastated area?" Blake inquired. The devastated area was the locals' name for Sector 14 and its neighboring sectors that took the brunt of Bedlam's terrorism ten years ago. That sector and the neighboring ones were still in reconstruction phases. Most of these sectors were almost uninhabitable with constant blackouts, rouge robots, problems with the water system, and wireless and data signal problems—250 years of backtracking. "Why didn't you move afterwards?"

"Where to? Everywhere else is so expensive. Ten years of medical problems after losing my arm, it's not easy to move." Mr. Donovan shrugged. "For what? To move to another sector with the same problems? Just because other sectors weren't destroyed, doesn't mean they avoided the situation."

"Yeah, Hummel, I have to fix my stove every time there's a blackout. What fancy rich sector do _you_ live?" Fizz egged on. He glared at her while she smirked. "Mr. Donovan, good news is that it's not your nerves rejecting the prosthesis. You can rest assured that nothing is wrong with you. The bad news is I need to borrow your arm to check if the circuiting in the prosthesis is well-mounted and programmed."

The patient sighed. "Sure, that's what I'm here for."

With a few tools and the help of her co-worker, Fizz removed the now-lifeless robotic arm. She carried it to a main table with a monitor and a keyboard. The stainless steel table had an adjustable opening with many chips, magnets and circuits. The arm straightened when she connected it to the computer. She typed and decoded the arm's programming.

"Blake!" she groaned. "This arm is connected to Progress City's mainframe! This isn't an arm, it's a radio!" She glared at him. "Is this a prank to you? Are you guys trying to destroy this lab from the inside?"

"I swear this wasn't my intention!" he pleaded. "I installed everything like I mapped it out in the blueprints. It was approved by the committee!"

She continued to work with the monitor to see how far the rabbit-hole went with this mess. She managed to connect to mainframe with the use of the arm. Her eyes widen in astonishment. "This arm is _hackable_ , Blake!" She knew her co-worker wasn't malicious, if something a bit naive with his surroundings. "Hey… weren't you arming this with the interns?"

"Yes, why—oh." He suddenly realized the fluke. "The cables did feel flimsier than actual electrical ones."

"They grabbed the wrong ones for his fingers, so the support cables wouldn't work after a few days of usage." She slapped him with the folder. "You know what to do."

"Thank you, Roche! Want some coffee sent your way in the afternoon?" Blake said as he walked away into a cabinetry area of the workshop.

"Yeah, and give our buddy Mr. Donovan some as well for torturing him all day here." She turned to the patient and smirked at him. He smiled back.

She continued to fiddle with monitor. It showed a map of Progress City with various moving lines crossing each other. She continued to type and the map changed to other versions of itself. She already knew what each map meant: electrical currents, data transfers, air filtration, traffic, robot locator, everything and anything. She hacked the system once more to locate people.

"Maybe… just maybe," she whispered to herself as she type out a code that was created by her and Deets for Dojo Deliveries: the crew's signature locator. She typed her own signature code. Her Builder signature was placed in Huckinson's. She typed a long code. The computer took its time, but resulted with a "not found" error. "Fuck…" She punched the back button in reaction, but surprised herself instantly when she imagined destroying a keyboard that wasn't hers.

She looked up. Shock streamed throughout her body. Her pupils shook witnessing a signature...

A signature matching a shorter version of Ed's code.

She slowly typed the last parts of a code she disgracefully remembered.

The signature matched her new code.


	5. Mercurial

Fizz didn't say goodbye to Blake Hummel or Mr. Donovan. She took off to the main lobby. She was pale and trembling; she was weak. What was she to do with this information? Did Ed know about this? He had to—he brought it up to her a year ago! Is he in a constant battle with _him_? Did he need her help? She tried to pick up her phone, but found out she was still wearing scrubs. Did she need to contact the Dojo? Should she contact the police? The military?

"Dr. Roche? Hey, Roche! I was calling you!" Fizz was brought back to her surroundings by the main lobby's secretary. "You have someone looking for you."

"For… _me_?" her voiced pitched a bit. She started to get paranoid. First she witnessed Bedlam's signature and now a visitor? She felt like she could faint any second.

"Some handsome guy by the name of Brandon Moore."

Oh, fuck no.

The blood returned to her face. The quaking stopped. "If he comes again, tell him I'm busy!" She didn't need this. She needed to plan this out and search what was the best course of action. What did he want from her anyway? She had six more days to write her snarky apology to them over their group chat.

"So… if you don't want him, can I take him?"

"There's a reason I don't want him."

"Is he _that_ bad?"

"Your hand is better than him."

"Excuse me?" Burn stepped between them. His strong arms crossed over his chest. "You wish we ever had something, Frances."

She laughed. "Is that the reason you end up breaking up with all the chicks you've dated, Brandon? To make _me_ jealous and come running to you?"

He calmed his temper before it escalated to something that it shouldn't. He wasn't there to argue, even if it was just a petty argument Fizz made up for shits and giggles. "Can we talk… alone?" He glared at the secretary. She looked down at her work.

"I haven't even started work and you want me to take a break?" She sighed. He took his time to come. He lives in the east side of town, after all. "Sure, I need to lose my job. Come on in."

She took him into the AI Robotics department's break room. It was bigger than the Biotechnologies' one with more benches, two microwaves and more cabinets. There was nobody there, so they could talk in private. They sat in the farthest bench to the door.

She hadn't taken much notice of Burn since everything happened so fast. He always dressed well and this wasn't an exception. A simple black shirt paired skinny brick red jeans. He took off a dark gray mid-length coat and mustard scarf and hung them on his chair. He was never a fan of cold climate like she was, so he was very mobile to warm himself up. Made sense why he would be a daytime police officer and live in the beachy east side of Progress.

There was an eerie silence between the two. Fizz didn't know what he wanted with her after her rampage yesterday and was just considering to apologize right there and then to relieve one problem off her back. Burn, on the other hand, just wanted her to talk and he would smoothly apologize to her about opening her old wounds. He thought bringing Deets would smoothen out the situation since she was Dojo's mediator. She knew what to say to make people feel better, but apparently the redhead's rudeness was too much for her.

He visited Fizz after he found out Ed disappeared—a few hours after her message in their group chat. He wasn't that big on being sentimental, but he was a very passionate and emotional man. He had lost something very important to him when he was younger. She lost someone, but he never expected for her to react the way she did: dry, sarcastic, rude, and cynical.

Burn bringing out Deets was his form of losing pride. He tried five times after that day to support Fizz in any way he could. He was very hard on her the first two years they met, but he was especially protective over her. He knew better than hold onto the nostalgic memories.

"Brandon, I'm sorry!" He was surprised by the outcome. "I shouldn't have snapped. You were helping me feel better about the situation. Ed means a lot to me, so I was being a brat and taking all my frustration on all of you. So Brandon, I apologize if I hurt your feelings. There's no excuse for what I did."

For the first time in a long while, he was speechless. He was letting his guard down to apologize, and here he was in the receiving end of it all. He watched as her eyes trembled in emotion. By her facial expression, he could tell she wasn't prepared to be this emotional at all. There was something different about her.

A release.

He knew something had happened between Fizz and Ed before he disappeared and she blamed herself for it. He never really found out the status of their relationship since it was in the air. He just thought the blue-eyed courier was confused about his feelings for Deets and Fizz liked a bit too much the attention he gave her. Eventually Ed _did_ date Deets for a while, but it didn't work out as well as everyone hoped.

She knew what those tears were about—stress. Stress over Ed, stress over Bedlam, stress over Ol' Skool, stress to maintain her apartment, stress in her job with her prototype, stress to maintain herself on top of things... her self-doubt eating her alive.

She realized what a hold Ed had on her.

"I'm sorry too."

She looked up. Her face was getting puffy and she sniffed.

"I shouldn't have bothered. I tried to make things better, but never once did I think to make things better for _you_ —what you were comfortable with. I just assumed what you wanted and never bothered to ask."

"No… no! It's okay! I mean, I flattered you apologized and all; but you didn't corner me. I wanted to see it for myself!" She curled her hands together. "I… I just had high expectations. I just assumed…" She trailed off without finishing her sentence.

"What?"

"Oh." She didn't expect to have said that loud enough for him to hear. "Nah, I just assumed Ed was there."

Burn didn't feel that was her intended answer, but let it slide. He shouldn't push her.

"Hey… I don't usually do this, but let me make it up to you. I know you want to get your pride up again." Fizz stood up from her seat.

"No?" He was very confused on the turn of events.

"Yeah, how about I spend the weekend at your place, accompany me to my cousin's wedding and we can get all the free food and drinks we'll ever want?"

He stood up. "Are you asking me out?"

"I don't date," she said sternly. "You live near the wedding and I need someone so I don't have to waste my time explaining why I'm single."

He rolled his eyes and smirked. She was back.

"So how about it? I can ask my boss to change my day off next week, we get wasted on Sunday, and hungover and chunking out on Monday. I remember you mentioning that you don't work on Mondays, so it's perfect!"

He chuckled. "So you want to waste your day off with me, but you can't hang out at least one day with Sarah?" Burn crossed his arms in amusement. So much for her not wanting him.

"Does it bother you?" She shrugged. "I remember a conversation back then about helping and supporting me because I had fallen into depression." Fizz turned her back to him. "I also remember a "make things better" for me not so long ago."

Burn smiled and wrapped one of his arms around Fizz's shoulder. This was her way of asking for help not only for her family matter, but for her own mental health. "So you think I'm _that_ bad, huh?"

She put a hand on her hip. "Your track record says so."

Blunt force trauma. Gunshot wound to the face. Knife cut in the aorta. "Fuck you!"

"What a great idea!" she mused. She walked towards the door and turned to him. "Gimme a rain check on that!" She left the break room.

Burn went right behind her with a confused expression on his face. Apparently, she felt the need to return back to the main lobby. "What?"

"C'mon, it'll be fun!" She pulled her tongue out. "I haven't been with someone for a year now."

But didn't she say she didn't date—?

Oh. _That's_ what she meant.


	6. Vexatious

Frances rather not have any more surprises that day. She got back into her clothes, put on her fancy unnecessary lab coat and went to work…

And work felt like she was late due with her homework. She remembered why she took on Blake's favor: she hadn't figured out how to latch the holo-solid's chip to someone's head. She just opened up one of her red scrunchies, shoved it in there and called it a day.

She was one of the engineers against connecting every piece of technology to Progress City's mainframe and the Internet. With her old job at Dojo Deliveries, she had first-hand experience where that data could fall into. She couldn't even trust the city to protect its population's private information without some corrupt bureaucrat gaining access to it.

She wasn't shoving that chip into people's brains, just in case that ever happened without her knowledge. She wasn't going to make hair ties either, would narrow the consumer range. With that, also any hair accessories or hats; this was for everyday use. She considered changing the design to ear pieces, but that would clash with the already established communication jewelry.

She sat in a long white table staring at an empty blueprint paper. The empty walls of the common room left her with no visual distraction. Any next meeting with the department, she would bring decoration to the discussion table. Maybe a plant or two.

The redhead grabbed the white pencil next to her blueprint and drew a basic human head. She stared at it for a while hoping to get inspiration from her stupid drawing. Her head crashed into the table with a _thud_ and she groaned out of frustration.

"The only way this could happen is if the chip floated above the user." She started a monologue to see if that would help her mental block. "Like a hover system's ground detection; but instead of the ground, it's a human." She felt that idea already existed… then it hit her.

"The Neo-Dermis!"

She drew up a curved panel that hovered over the head in her blueprint. She groaned when she found out she could resolve her problem much quicker if she had the Neo-Dermis' information in her home.

"But I _do_ have his Neo-Dermis info!" She struck with a breakthrough. She picked up her phone. "Hey, Blake! Can I take that coffee to-go?"

* * *

Sarah couldn't get the image of a raging Fizz out of her mind. It was so out of character for the young woman. Well, almost everything but the sarcasm was out of character. She never expected the redhead to be mean-spirited nowadays. Maybe this was the reason the inventor never responded in their chat, because she certainly did look at it.

Deets never held ill-feelings towards Fizz when she figured out the redhead had some feelings towards Ed. It sort of made sense: they used to pair up constantly back in the courier days and eventually living together by some twisted play by fate. Also Fizz and Ed plead to her parents to not officially adopt him into the family and taking on the Roche surname; instead he lived with them under Ol' Skool's surname. She thought it was a nice idea to honor the old man, but apparently there was an ulterior motive to it as well. They were considerably more emotionally-attached than Deets could've ever known.

Sarah was working on a commission sent by Huckinson's Home Robotics department. They wanted to develop a smart house and wanted Nebula Programming Studio to collaborate on the massive build. She was given the task to program the closets since she was the most organized of the group.

She was thinking too much about yesterday's events. She considered visiting Frances after work to apologize for almost slapping her, but she really didn't know what a good time could be to visit. Also she remembered her talking about working overtime for her weapon, so she wouldn't even be at her apartment.

She would have to make do with the little things she learned about her friend recently.

* * *

The Dojo had really aged since their fight with Bedlam. It was already burned out because the fire Bedlam caused. It oxidized very quickly in the last two years they worked in there. The old billboards were just a black burned mess. It just didn't look like a place anyone should be living in.

But they did all those years ago just to maintain the company and their bizarre friendship alive. It wasn't everyday a group of mismatched children became a very close-knit family and practically had sleepovers every night. They didn't want the fun to end.

Loogie had this route engraved into his brain. It was very nostalgic passing through this sector. He swooped down on his hover boots to the street's exit and unto the edge of Dojo's territory. Outside of the building was a silver hovercar with a young woman sitting on the hood of the car.

Fizz took notice and stood up. The pair had grown their friendship throughout the years. He was very understanding and patient with her. She respected him a lot more and considered him more than just a crazy guy with an imaginary friend. She managed to have conversations with both of them. Of anyone in the Dojo, the inventor could rely on him.

"Oh great, here we go again!" Dr. Pinch exclaimed to the redhead. "Can't you just do this alone?"

She turned to the Dojo. A swift breeze passed through them lightly blowing her lab coat and Loogie's hair. She walked silently towards the outside patio area, where a door has stayed closed for seven years.

Loogie understood immediately. She always had these feelings—like Ed's static ability—to predict or sense something's amiss. This was one of those times.

She lifted the door. The walkway inside was empty and gray with a few damages here and there. There was a hole in the roof covered by zinc planks. They walked inside and entered the main room. The room was fixed up as best as five teenagers could. A few blue awnings covered the holes left on the roof by Bedlam's robots. Other holes and damages were covered in zinc planks.

The main living quarters was dramatically changed with an old ugly-patterned sofa, two pull-out chairs and a smaller holo-vid table. The pair didn't stay and watch. They headed towards her old workshop. All the shelving had been disassembled and emptied out. Only the tables, the monitors and the med-bay area survived.

Fizz ran towards a breaker and pulled a lever. Loogie turned on the light. It buzzed as the LED tubes brightened the room as best as they could. The redhead ran towards the monitor next to the med-bay and booted it up.

"You think my missing capybara figurine might still be in here?" the tall man said as he started searching up and down the workshop.

"The shit you lost when we moved out?" Fizz typed the passcodes into the computer.

"Hey, Mr. Roronopolis is _not_ shit!" He skated towards her. "He was a collectible and a very inspiring member of society!"

"Inspiring as in pranking Deets into thinking there was robo-rat behind the toilet so she had to call Burn to get rid of it?"

"It was great and you know it!"

She cackled. The computer was finally fully-functional. Loogie skated away into the main room while she dealt with the data. She found Ed's profile and folder in the computer. He looked so innocent when he started out.

She remembered when he started out, she had to stick around her and Burn most of the time. Burn taught him how to fight and she taught him how to use the weapons. Fizz was pretty sure she had taught Ed how to be human between lessons—as if she knew how to be teenager at eleven. She was awkward enough as it was being a genius and all.

A loud _thud_ was heard in the main room. She knew right away it wasn't Loogie. She cautiously walked towards the door of her workshop to look outside. Before she even got a chance to, a robotic hand grabbed the door and tapped its fingers on it.

Frances took a step back. A hoopbot stared directly at her.

"LOUIS?" she hollered back, awaiting some form of response. She took a few steps back as the hoopbot kept getting closer and closer. She couldn't move anymore as her back was into the computer with Ed's file wide open. She pulled out a data cube from her coat's pocket and put it in the drive. It was going to take five minutes to haul all of Ed's data—which she considered too much for a single member, but remembered it was an electro-enhanced bioengineering data as well.

She had no weapons to take on the hoopbot and Loogie still hadn't responded to her. Her hologram was summoned. "I can take my frustrations out on you."

* * *

Sarah was on route to Sector Nine… and to go to Sector Nine from her job, she had to pass by the Dojo. She stopped her hovercar near the edge of the main road to look down on their burnt-down workplace. It still looked like a mess in the outside. It's a miracle it wasn't demolished yet.

She noticed a silver hovercar parked outside of the Dojo. Wasn't that Fizz and Ed's car? What was she doing in the Dojo? She pulled out her cellphone and called the young woman.

* * *

The holo-solid stabbed the hoopbot again and again until it was too broken to stand up. One last stab before the hoopbot lay broken on the floor. Black oil spilled all around it. The hologram returned to hover behind Fizz's head.

She pulled out her phone, which she noticed was vibrating. It was Deets. She looked out between the door, the robot and her phone. She denied the call and ran towards the door. Loogie had to be in trouble!

* * *

"C'mon, pick up!"

The call was denied.

"Fizz, no!"

Was she ignoring her? Was she looting the Dojo? Was she… depressed? Maybe the turn of events of not finding Ed might've made her fall deeper into… no! That can't be… can it? She has been very distant towards them this year. Doesn't answer texts or messages… but she does look at the group chat!

She started typing.

" _Deets: Fizz, are you in the Dojo?"_

A few seconds later and only Burn had taken notice of the message.

" _Burn: What?"_

" _Deets: Fuck! There's no time!_ _Come here NOW!"_


	7. Catharsis

There were a few destroyed robots scattered throughout the main room. Loogie didn't go out without a fight.

"Loogie! Dr. Pinch!" She noticed two robots menacingly walking towards the kitchen. She ran towards them. They took notice of her presence and one of them ran towards her. "Hoping this works!"

Her hologram shot towards the robot. The robot stopped running and just trembled on the spot. It glowed in a blue light. She had successfully downloaded her hologram into the hoopbot's system.

Fizz was in control now.

* * *

Deets walked cautiously in the outside patio. She noticed a big hole on the roof when she was heading down towards the Dojo. It wasn't like that when they abandoned it a few years ago. She recalled passing by a few months ago and not seeing that hole. She entered the Dojo and saw a robot foot at the end of the hallway.

She ran. Fizz was in trouble!

Or not.

She watched as the inventor's hologram downloaded itself to one of the surviving robots. The robot turned against its partner and started beating it up. The opposing robot crashed down.

"Louis?" the redhead called. "It's alright, I'm here!"

The fridge opened and Loogie slid out of it. "There were too many…" He held onto his left elbow in pain.

"He dislocated his shoulder while in the tousle," Dr. Pinch explained.

"I could've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for these meddling robots!" He held his elbow again in pain after moving his arm just a bit.

"Lay down, I'm gonna fix this," she sighed. He did as he was told. "Do you trust me?"

"Not particularly," Dr. Pinch said.

"Close enough." Fizz shrugged as she put her foot on the joint between the arm and the shoulder. She stomped on it once and the man cried in pain. She felt the arm. "Relocated it!" She smiled.

"Thank you, Fran!" Loogie hugged the redhead tightly.

Deets cleared her throat. The pair, still holding one another, turned back to see the black-haired woman.

"Sarah?" Fizz questioned.

"Did you get my message? I'm so glad you're okay!" The dark-haired woman kneeled at their level.

"Sorry, it was answering you or saving Loogie." The inventor picked up her phone. She saw that Burn had answered the messages.

"I'm glad you ignored me… for once."

Dr. Pinch and Fizz looked at each other. "Oh no." She pointed at the puppet. "We're not doing this now!"

"She's not ignoring you! She just doesn't know what to say!" Dr. Pinch yelled at the tall woman. The young redhead pushed Loogie off of her and put her hands on her face. Her face tinged in red from embarrassment.

"It's not that I don't want to be friends with you; it's just… it feels awkward," she explained. "I don't usually give a fuck, but when Ed started dating you… I guess what I'm trying to say is that… I should be trying harder not to hold it against you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being a brat and hurting your feelings yesterday. It was completely out of line." She said it quickly and in one breath.

Her "problem" with Deets was just an embarrassing petty thought that ran through the redhead's brain for a _very_ long time. Very anti-climactic.

"Oh, what a relief!" The dark-haired woman tightly hugged her friend. "I thought you hated me! Just stop being such a lone wolf, okay?" She looked at Fizz with a hand caressing her friend's cheek. "No doubt about it! That's something you learned from Ed."

The inventor shoved her slightly and lightly chuckled. Finally, some glimpse of the Fizz she used to know.

"Uh, guys!" Everyone looked at Dr. Pinch. "I don't want to ruin the moment, but who's controlling the robot?"

"I…" The young woman looked up at the hoopbot who had lost its light blue glow. Her hologram had returned to its rightful place. "Am?" Her voice peaked.

The hoopbot threw its fists up in the air to smash the women. "Guys, scatter!" Deets yelled before everyone ran away from the robot. Loogie headed back to the main room. The tall woman partially followed Fizz to her workshop. She stopped midway when she heard something break in Loogie's direction.

He had one of the destroyed hoopbots' arms as a weapon. _"¡A la lucha libre!"_ He hit the robot on its knees.

"This isn't even near _lucha libre_ status!" Dr. Pinch critiqued.

Deets ran full-speed towards the robot and jump-kicked it square on its torso.

* * *

Fizz jumped over the hoopbot she had broken in her workshop to get to her computer in the med-bay. The datacube had acquired the information she needed. She pulled it out and returned it to her lab coat's pocket.

She heard Deets' yell. When she turned around, she saw the last remaining hoopbot had entered her workshop and had her friends in both hands.

"Let 'em go!" She took a fighting stance.

"Come with me," the hoopbot managed to say. This wasn't any ordinary rouge…

No…

It can't be!

A bolt of plasma tore the robot in half and it collapsed onto the floor. The pair was released from its grasps. Burn had shot it while it was distracted. "Would've come heavy-handed, but they don't let off-duty cops handle the suits." He returned his plasma gun back to his belt.

Fizz ran up to Burn and hugged him tightly. She was shivering in fear.

"Did I miss something?" He cocked an eyebrow at his friends while he hugged the redhead by the waist.

"Family reunion part _deux_ , anyone?" Deets shrugged and smiled.


	8. Foray

A door slid open. Fizz and Burn entered her ivory-colored apartment. It mimicked her personal workshop pretty well. It was fairly small; but considering Ed and Fizz were the smaller people on the group, it worked out fine. There was a holo-vid table with a navy blue sofa in the living room. Above the couch were various framed blueprints and what he remembered as her mother's plasma injector necklace hanging on the wall.

The kitchen was small, but organized. It had black cabinets and magnetic strips holding stainless steel utensils in place. Burn had imagined she would have some sort of robot servant doing everything for her, but he was surprised it wasn't the case. Even back in the Dojo, simple tasks like brushing her hair and clothing herself was due to some invention she did.

Between the kitchen area and the living room was a small space with three doors. He was sure that were their sleeping quarters and one of the bathrooms.

"Thank you for staying." Fizz hung up her lab coat and purple backpack on the coat hanger. "It's the least I can do after you rescued us." She went to the kitchen to make some drinks.

He chuckled. "I'll take any excuse to avoid the traffic back to Eastern." He took off his gray coat; but at the first sensation of extreme cold, he put it back on. The redhead adored the cold. "Hey, are you okay?"

She stiffened. Two glasses filled with ice on both hands. She didn't dare to stare at him. "Are we ever okay?" she cop-outed an answer.

"You were shaking like an EMP-ed riot bot back there. I thought you were tougher than that." He put his hands on his hips, emphasizing the seriousness of his tone.

"Well, I haven't dedicated my life to fighting robots, have I?" She pulled out dark liquor from one of her cabinets.

"But you did save Progress City and the world a couple of times." He sat down on her couch while she poured the drinks in her kitchen. "I know you, girl. Yesterday, you completely massacred us all day long. You haven't even dented me since I rescued you. What's wrong with you?"

She took a sip of the rum in one of her hands. It burned all the way to her throat as a reminder to use her words carefully. "I'm just stressed out." She sat down to his left and gave him the other drink.

"I'm sure Ed is fine, Fran." He took a sip as well. It was very comforting for him considering how cold the room was. "You saw it; he was just living there all this time. He isn't dead."

"It's not about if he's alive or not." Fizz stared down on her beverage. She gulped down the entire glass. Her worries were getting to her slowly but surely. "It's why he suddenly… took off." She placed the empty glass on the holo-vid table.

He couldn't tell if he was impressed by her chugging down a glass of alcohol or how stable she appeared to be with her stress to drink rum in one go. "Maybe it has something to do with his destiny or something. Maybe he needed some training. Look for his other artifacts? For clues as to Ol' Skool's whereabouts?" He took another sip of rum.

"Do you think Skool's…" She looked up at him. "Alive?" Ed would ask her that question every once in a while during those sleepless night of existential crisis. She never admitted it to the blue-eyed man, but she always lied about her answer just to get him to sleep. She loved the man, but she loved sleep just a tad bit more at three in the morning.

Burn looked down at her with concern. "Sure he is! He's tough."

"Ed was always worried sick about Skool," she explained. "Back home... every weekend, I would try to upgrade my parents' stuff and he would always sit next to me remembering all the things Ol' Skool did with him—even the days when he was still inside the stewpot." She realized she was good at diverting the conversation.

"What was it like… living with Ed after we disbanded? I know you had— _have_ —a thing for him. How serious were you guys?"

"Jealous, aren't we?" She smirked. She relaxed on her couch, her head on the cushion. "We did our thing. Some days we just hung out in the skate park trying to out-do each other. Other days we'd just rip each other to shreds whenever one of us messed up… and _other_ days when my parents weren't around, we'd just fool around in his room."

He didn't need a mental visual of that.

"You still have feelings for him?"

"Obvi."

"Then why you ask _me_ for a rain check then?"

"Doesn't mean I exclusively have feelings for him." This just went somewhere he never expected it would.

He gulped down the last of his drink. It was going to be a _very_ long weekend.

Fizz finally noticed that he still had his coat on. "Is it too cold for you?" He nodded. "Sorry." The hologram orb appeared above her hair and shone a bit brighter for a second before returning to its usual dim glow. "Should be getting warmer soon." The tail soon emerged and turned into a monitor. She slid her finger around the hologram.

Burn watched her attentively work with her invention. She was occupied with whatever was in her monitor… social media. He slowly slid his left arm over the couch. If she was interested in him, might as well go for it.

"If you're gonna do that, might as well go all in." She got closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder and letting him wrap his arm around her shoulder. She was in a chat room—the Dojo's chatroom reading the messages they all left in the last twenty-four hours. "I was gonna apologize next week, but apparently you guys had another idea."

"Yeah, but I wanted to apologize in per—"

"ED?" Her fingers hovered and trembled over her monitor. Burn looked over the chat to just see only his and Deets' conversation. Down where they could see who saw the conversation were everyone's pictures, including Ed's. "Th-This is the first time he's ever acknowledged us!"

He read the conversation he had with Deets. "It was _you_!" She looked up at him. She could smell the alcohol lingering in his breath. "He was worried about you!"

"Oh…" The way they had ended the conversation sounded pretty uncertain of Fizz's fate. "I should probably write something to calm him down." Before she ever got to touch the keyboard, Burn stopped her.

"Isn't this what you want?"

"I want Ed back, not him having another thing to worry about!"

"Okay, but think about it this way: if you don't respond, he _has_ to start looking for you! He might be a lone wolf, but we are important to him!"

"I saw the convo, so he knows I'm fine."

"Damn it! Can't you unread yourself?"

"Don't be stupid! I'm not gonna torture him! He must be out there—" She caught herself.

He cocked a brow and gave her an inquisitive look. She sounded so sure at what she was about to say.

"Fighting rogues," she said dryly and her shoulder slumped down. How does one lie to a cop?

"I highly doubt you were gonna say that."

"It's the only threat we have now." She turned off her hologram. She was irritated with herself and with Burn for not letting it go.

He noticed her body language—like a little girl trying not to get in trouble, but still acting it up in hopes of it working. She'd always been like that. She could never lie. She'd end up looking scared, laughing nervously or just angry at herself. "You know you can't lie."

"You don't _know_ me." She sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"You're desperate."

She playfully gasped in surprise.

Burn laughed a bit. He would let her get away with it; he knew enough to fill in the blanks. He held her hips to stabilize her more.

"You're committing to this, aren't you?"

"Might as well go all in."


	9. Inveigle

Her bed was extremely uncomfortable and tiny. Does she sleep with so many blankets? He opened his eyes.

Oh, he slept on the couch. What a gentleman he was.

Nothing extremely eventful happened the rest of the night. Fizz said something along the lines of "Distance makes the heart grow fonder", which in other words meant blue balls all night long. He was certainly confused if this was going too fast or was this slow in her mind.

He had a few blankets on top of him, including his coat that he never took off. He didn't remember having any blankets before falling asleep.

"Hey, sleep well?" Burn heard her voice right behind him. "Gave you like… three of my heaviest blankets since you hate the cold." She slurped.

She sat on the table. One hand was holding her face while reading the news on her phone, the other one holding a mug. Her thick red mid-back length hair, extremely ungroomed with straight and curled parts, ran amok her shoulders and back. She wore a satin white robe covering a dark green crop top and red boyshorts.

It was going to be a very _very_ long weekend.

* * *

"Thanks for actually letting me stay!" Fizz shoved her bag into the backseat of Burn's black hovercar. "I knew you couldn't resist such a pretty girl staying with you over the weekend."

"As if you weren't the one on top of me last night." He crossed his arms.

"As if you weren't wiggling that arm around me last night." She took out her tongue.

She was dressed for the occasion. High-waisted yellow shorts that showed her pale legs paired with light green tank top and a purple bomber jacket. She sat on the passenger's seat, pushed the seat back to put her white sneakers on the dashboard. Her hair was in a high ponytail secured by her red scrunchie.

Burn nonchalantly sat on the driver's seat and took off.

Fizz knew Sector 23 was completely different than her own Sector 43. It was on the beachy east edge of Progress City—also known as Eastern—high above the more expensive Sectors 24 and 25. They were once Bedlam sectors until the old townspeople reclaimed it nine years ago.

"Did your parents moved back to Eastern or was it just you?"

"They don't have enough to move back. _But_ just between you and me, I've been saving to move 'em."

"Aren't you such a sweet and thoughtful child?" She smirked at him. "Mother effing swoon."

"Glad you liked that deep sentimental part of me." He laughed.

Fizz's phone vibrated in her pocket. She picked it up. " _Hey!_ Yeah... no wait, gimme a sec!" She pressed a button on her phone and let it rest on one of the cup holders. "Okay, now!"

" _Hey, guys!"_

Burn knew that voice anywhere. "Hey, Loog!"

" _I'm so sore from yesterday! You better use_ all _that data after what happened."_

"I never asked: _why_ were you two at the Dojo?" the older man inquired.

"Ed's Neo-Dermis' info. I need it for work." She called upon her hologram. It was more compact than usual to fit inside of the car. "I downloaded his info to see how it works."

"Wasn't his gear in another language?"

"He taught me after we disbanded."

" _Yet you can't be a polyglot with me!"_ Loogie sighed.

"I gave Spanish a try!"

" _For a day!"_

"And what a day it was!" She and Loogie laughed. It was weird for Burn hearing her so giddy after two days of sour attitude. She checked the folder in her monitor. "Shit!" She groaned. "Lou, I'm sorry!"

" _If you messed up the datacube, this friendship is over!"_

" _It should've been over seven years ago, man!"_ Dr. Pinch hollered.

"It took so long because I took out _all_ of the computer's data!" Fizz opened her own profile from the folder. Four pictures of her appeared on the screen—one for each year she worked in the Dojo.

He gasped. _"You monster! Don't you dare put my first picture on the 'net!"_

"Braces Loogie was best Loogie, to be completely honest." She smirked.

"But you _do_ have Ed's data, right?" Burn interrupted. She nodded. "Then no problem at all! Mission accomplished!"

" _You're just saying that because you don't want Fran to look at your profile."_

"Fran, don't you think having his profile can benefit for your own personal gain?"

"I… guess?" She was confused by Burn's statement.

"Remember that Skool would put all of the artifacts' data on that computer, so he could translate and map out where everything was."

" _I don't like where this is going…"_ Dr. Pinch said in a worrisome tone.

"If you know how to read Ed's language, maybe you can map out his locations!"

" _We might actually find him!"_ Loogie gasped.

"But…" There was somberness in Fizz's voice. "What if—"

"What if what?" Burn was getting a bit ticked off by her insecurities. He sighed when he recognized his temper was getting the best of him.

"Brandon, Louis, just listen to me for one sec…" She paused. "What if… he just _doesn't_ want to be found?"

"You've been trying to say it since yesterday. Do I have to spell it out or will you do the honors?" Burn raised his eyebrow at the woman.

There was an uncomfortable silence between them. Only the hovercar's air conditioning hummed in the air. He pieced it all together. There was no escaping or distraction this time. There was no sweet talking herself out of this one. She disliked confrontation, but it was time she told them.

"Bedlam is back…"

It was a very bittersweet moment.


	10. Inducement

The sand was warm between her toes. She hadn't been to the beach in the longest while. The closest thing to it was her apartment complex's top floor pool.

Burn had his arm over Fizz's shoulder to comfort her as best he could. He didn't know how stressed she was until she confessed to seeing Bedlam's signature over Progress City. He took her to the beach to see if she would calm down, but the amount of people made her very tense. He was steering her away to a more secluded part of the beach where she could talk it out.

It was a bit rockier and full of palm trees than the rest of the beach, but she didn't mind. At least there weren't people around jamming to tunes and unruly children running amok. Burn brought a towel for them and he quickly placed it over the rock they were about to sit on since it was extremely hot.

"So… you knew all this time, huh?" she inquired timidly. She hated feeling helpless. She hated confrontation and even remembering old confrontations. She hated her paranoia. Most of all, she hated her depressive state. She was stuck with one of her best friends in such a vulnerably emotional state.

He lightly chuckled. He was a cop after all. He noticed his friend's rigid posture. She sat in a way that in any moment she could walk away from the situation. He was pretty sure if he didn't keep an eye on her, she _would_ disappear. Like Ed, like Fizz.

"The night Ed left… it was surreal," she explained. "Ever since Ol' Skool disappeared, he stopped having visions."

Burn didn't realize until she mentioned it that Ed never spoke about having a vision the last two years they worked in the Dojo.

"And then last year rolled around… and he had this vision." She looked at the horizon. The breeze was very comforting. Her red hair flew lifelessly. "He barged into our room like a madman. I've never seen him that riled up… I tried to calm him down, but he just… _couldn't_. We eventually argued—I don't know why since all of his visions come true."

"You'd think he would get sick of us doubting him by now."

Her legs were slowly relaxing, adjusting themselves to the awkwardness of sitting on top of rock. She smiled solemnly. "I know, right? I just… didn't want to believe him. I didn't want him to fight Bedlam again. I didn't—I _don't_ want to lose him." She looked at Burn for some form of comfort. Her posture lost its rigidness. He knew she wasn't going anywhere. She was going to finish what she started.

Another gust of air blew towards them; this time harder. Her flowing hair, like her words, suddenly expressed life. "When we were younger, he told me that he eventually had to leave us behind to protect Earth and his alien world. He had to watch over us. I didn't want that! I wanted to be with him!" She was teary-eyed just remembering that night.

"I wanted us—the Dojo—to be together again, hang out and have a blast just doing whatever the fuck we wanted," Fizz continued. "He stopped being a destined child. Why couldn't he stay like that?" She was becoming agitated, but soon calmed down when she realized… "I've been so selfish. I've been thinking about what I want that I forget about what Ed wants."

Burn found out what polar opposites Fizz's public persona was to her private one. While publicly she was confident, smart and unruly, her private life was filled with over-adoration, lack of self-worth, very unhealthy and obsessive thoughts, and abandonment issues. For a lack of better terms, she was pretty much a _mess_.

Depression… _depression_ was the better term. He knew he used that word to describe the woman for the longest time, but the word grew heavy. It was a monster in it of itself. It wasn't a depressive mood—she was suffering _from_ depression. This wasn't something that started when Ed left; this was _years_ in the making. How didn't they all notice this sooner?

She grew up so fast that she never got a chance to resolve all these issues slowly. She was naive with her feelings—she hadn't figured out the bigger picture of her depression. She'd been so focused on Ed that she hadn't been living her own life.

And how could _he_ bring it up? How could he even try to be romantically-involved with her after all this? How could it even be healthy for her? How could he intervene without scaring her? How could he intervene without her feeling attacked and pushing everyone away once again?

"Tell me the truth… am I being selfish?"

Oh, he did _not_ want to be on the spot! He already felt like a shitty friend after listening to her insecurities and not realizing this was a mental illness all along. How could she even manage with all those terrible thoughts about herself?

"Frances Roche, you are a piece of work," Burn sighed. The least he could do was speak up. "I think sometimes you forget you _are_ human as well. It's _okay_ to be selfish every once in a while. It's _okay_ to have feelings… the good and the bad ones." He grabbed onto her waist, pulled her closer and hugged her. "You drowning yourself in the bad ones that you tend to forget the good things that happen to you."

She gulped. This wasn't the first time she heard that.

"And didn't you come here to chill? You need it."

"I came because of my mom. If it were up to me, I'd be back home." She looked up at him. He looked a bit disappointed by her answer. His grip on her was slowly weakening. "But then again…" She grabbed his face and kissed him right on the lips. She did it a bit forcefully; maybe she missed that sensation a bit too much. "I'm glad to be spending time with you."

Burn was extremely dumbfounded. Seconds ago, he was just analyzing the situation and mentally kicking himself. He kept staring at her—he had no choice, she still held his head—trying to find a solution to his dilemma. But maybe…

Just maybe…

He should listen to his own advice every once in a while and let it play by ear. He could be selfish for once as well.

He kissed her back—just a tad gentler than her.

* * *

"Hey… Mom."

" _How are you, kiddo?"_

"Could be worse." Fizz was sitting on a black barstool in Burn's kitchen counter. She was a bit tanner in complexion thanks to their escapade to the beach earlier in the afternoon. She was adding a software to her holo-solid: one that could track everyone in the files she had gathered—Deets, Burn, Loogie, Ol' Skool, Ed, and Bedlam. If he was back in Progress, the least she could do was localize everyone.

" _This is probably the first positive thing you've said in a long while! Are you okay?"_

"I'm fine. Look, I just wanted to say that I'll see you tomorrow. I found someone who'll come with."

" _Oh my… Frances… are you in love?"_

She scoffed so hard even Burn, who was in the kitchen cleaning up dishes, turned his head to see what was going on.

" _You are! I just know it!"_ her mother squealed in delight.

"Stop it! I am _not_!"

" _You know you can't lie!"_ She giggled. _"I'm so happy for you! I know how much you loved Edward and how much you've mourned since he disappeared; but I'm so glad you're moving on."_

Moving on? Oh, her mom will be so disappointed if she ever found out…

"I'll… I'll call you back later… Goodbye." She turned down the call. She was so taken aback by her mother's comments. Wasn't this supposed to be like a quick fling over the weekend and done? Was she _actually_ in love?

Only one way to find out.

"Hey Brandon!" The man turned towards her once again. His fingers were dripping in soapy water. He grabbed a paper towel to dry his hands. "Are you in love with me?" His eyebrows rose up in surprise. He stared at her, at the counter, at the fridge, at the ceiling. He stood in frozen place.

Oh yeah, he was in love.

And she was giddy by his reaction… fuck.

"Don't freak out, Brandon; it's just a question."

He stammered a bit—still in shock of what had just transpired. He managed to say something, "Love is such a _strong_ word."

"Aww, you wanna go down as if we were kids," she mocked. "Do you like me? Like- _like_ me?" She laughed.

"You messed me up."

The perfect description to their relationship.

She smiled warm-heartedly. Her mother's words echoing in her brain. Fine. Fucking fine. Her mom was right.

"You messed me up too."


	11. Cogitation

The thing about Burn's apartment was that it was designed for one person in mind. One bedroom, one bathroom. He was going to let her sleep on his bed while he was on the couch, but Fizz was stubborn and convincing enough. They both slept on the same bed.

She teased him that her bed was more comfortable to sleep in, but she didn't mind sleeping in his bed. She was comfortable to be sleeping next to someone again—something she took for granted when Ed was still living with her. He was kind enough to make the room colder for her likings as long as he had heavy blankets on his side of the bed.

No matter what bed, her red hair instantly got messy and lay everywhere. Her hand lay on his chest. If his loud snoring didn't tell her she was sleeping with Burn, her hand on a very soft shirt would.

She had time to reflect on his words. Also she had time to think, to remember, to idealize.

Brandon found out a lot of information to add to his personal investigation, but he didn't know how much his meddling had opened Fizz to new ideas as to how Ed's destiny could change.

Yes, she was being selfish wanting Ed to stay on Earth forever with her and their friends. Yes, she knew that she was sounding like a kid demanding for anything and anyone to stop Ed's destiny. Yet… there was something to Ed's story and her mind's equation of events that gave her some hope.

Bedlam.

* * *

Fizz really didn't want to go to the wedding. She'd just be there for appearances rather than enjoyment. She'd just be there to see her mom once again. She wondered why she hadn't seen her mom as much as before… and she couldn't find an answer to it. She could go back home and visit for the weekend. Her mom wasn't overbearing; she was serene and full of life—her complete opposite, she thought.

Maybe next week, she should go back home for a visit… The calm before the storm.

The redhead groaned out loud in the car. No matter how many times Burn and Loogie have tried to distract her from those ill thoughts, she continued to stress over Bedlam's signature. They promised her a reunion to see the best way to tackle the situation. The best course of action at the moment: relax… something she had forgotten to do for a few years. She didn't notice that she groaned once again in frustration.

"Why are you such a _child_?" Burn inquired.

"Child, twenty-two; no dif there!"

"Hey, I can leave you over there so they can babysit you," he teased.

She groaned.

"Your fault, not mine."

Why was she there for other than her mother and a couple of drinks with a good friend? Oh yeah, her mind wandered once again to appearances. Her original thought when she made this plan was that her extended family would question about her love life. It really shouldn't matter to them how and with whom she lived—it didn't rate her success at all!

It was then she remembered a question that was just as bad. She groaned once again.

"I'm fucking turning this car around."

"They're gonna ask me about my job!" She put her hands over her face. "They're gonna expect me to be a corporal head or something."

"Now that's dumb, Fran! Why would they expect that? It takes decades of corruption to do that."

She laughed at that comment, lifting her tension ever so slightly. "People set child geniuses on outrageous standards. We don't age well at all," she explained. "My parents really didn't push or encourage me to that extreme lifestyle. They just let me be me and whatever happened… happened." She paused. "I'm no prodigy, I'm a normal lowly engineer fighting for a permanent spot to get a better pay. People tend to forget that—"

"You're human," Burn repeated his words from yesterday.

"I'm glad you're smart enough to figure that out."

The car stopped. They had arrived at the venue. "You're smart enough to hang out with a guy who knows that you're more than just smart."

"Fucking flirt."

Fizz got out of the hovercar first. She walked slowly to get accustomed to her ivory pumps on uneven ground. Her matching knee-length knit sweater dress hugged her pear-shaped figure. She fixed her off-the-shoulder neckline before she combed her long hair once more with her hands. Other than her outfit, the thing that in her mind made look formal was that the left part of her bangs were moved to the side by three golden bobby pins.

Burn came to her aid and she grabbed a hold of his right arm. She was sure he had never worn that black tuxedo before. He always looked good, but she didn't know he could look even better. That rain check was coming soon.

The venue was a big white-painted wooden beach barn that rested over the sand. It was decorated with golden ribbon around the giant door. There were many guests already inside talking to one another. In front of the door waited a redheaded woman—almost the exact replica of Fizz with the exception of hair length and thickness. She wore a long baby pink satin dress to mildly successfully hide her white flat shoes.

"I'm just gonna apologize in advance for what anyone says," the inventor said as she got her footing on somewhat even ground.

"At least your mom is cool."

"She's the coolest dork you'll ever meet, that's for sure."

"Second coolest. You're the first."

"How dare you," she groaned as Burn mischievously ran away towards her mother. She walked ever so slowly as she witnessed them interact.

He saw her holding back a laugh as he approached her. "Please save me from your daughter. I complimented her and she freaked."

"I didn't know it was _you_!" She hugged him tightly. "It's been so long and you've gotten so big! How are you, Brandon?" She held him by his arms.

"I'm good, helping Fran out. And how have you've been? I haven't seen you since that seminar you gave in PCU."

"That small talk… isn't helping me... _at all_!" Fizz gasped as she finally reached them. "Whose bright idea was to have a beach wedding?"

Her mother walked up to the inventor and gave her a loving and warm embrace. She needed that after the strange and chaotic week she was having. The older woman grabbed her by the neck and passed her hand over her daughter's hair. "I thought you were low-maintenance."

"I'm growing it out for the holo-solid prototype."

The older redhead touched the other's back neck and felt a slight bump—a muscle knot. "And why are you so tense? You're not the one getting married." She side-eyed Burn, to which he noticed and tried his best to avoid the mother's green stare.

Fizz didn't answer, but her facial expression said it all. She was nervous about something. Sienna Roche just wondered if it had to do something with her daughter's behavior these last few days. Was Brandon her love interest? More importantly, did _he_ know she had a crush on him?

"Can you leave me and Cissy alone for one second?" The younger redhead looked at her in shock. No matter what, she mostly despised _that_ nickname; and _Brandon_ learning _that_ was going to _destroy_ her image. She turned towards the man.

His amused face was holding out a laugh. Oh, her tirade was _over_. "Sure!" He took off to the corner of the barn. The last gesture she saw was him getting out his phone from his pocket.

"So have you told him yet?" Sienna asked as she held her daughter's arms in support.

She didn't know how to explain her situation—how it was a weekend fling or that she hadn't gotten over Ed—so she was short and to the point. "Yes?"

The most perfect answer Frances Roche could've ever given.

"Then what's the problem? You weren't like this when I called last weekend."

"I'm just stressed out, Mom. Everything just crashed in on me at once." She grabbed her mother's arms, so she could see a fake flicker of confidence. "I'll be fine."

She knew her mom didn't buy her mildly confident tone—she was no Burn.

"If you ever need anything, just let us know. You know your dad would fly down in a nanosec for you." She let go of her daughter once she realized in her tone she wanted to work this out on her own. Ever since she was a child, Frances would always have this independent and stubborn aura around her.

"Just tell him to stop showing me food and start bringing 'em back here."

"Maybe write back every so often, Cissy."

"Stop it, Mom!" she groaned.

* * *

The air conditioner hummed softly as she turned in bed. Black strands of hair shifted ever so slightly to her movements. The white bed sheet and her dusty pink blankets were wrapped around her ever so comfortably. The pillow was chilled and fluffed up.

The perfect catnap.

The group chat's ringtone pinged loudly four times throughout her room. Sarah swore that Brandon had some form of psychic ability to know when she was napping. She knew they both didn't get along back in the day, but this was just ridiculous! Her hand flared around her side table trying to feel the cold device. When she felt the rectangular device, she grabbed and glared at it.

" _Burn: guys  
Burn: GUYS  
Burn: I DID IT!  
Burn: Fizz ain't a menace anymore!"_

" _Deets: Asshole, I was sleeping!"_

" _Loogie: what did u do?"_

Deets took notice that four people were reading the conversation. What she didn't notice right away was that the fourth person wasn't Fizz at all.

" _Burn: I uncovered the tyrant's weakness and I WILL exploit it for all it's worth."_

Sarah rolled her eyes in amusement. It was then that she noticed _it_.

Ed was viewing the conversation in real time.


	12. Reprieve

Burn couldn't tell what was happening during the ceremony anymore. As long as nobody was standing up or clapping, he wasn't going to pay attention. He was very impressed by Fizz. She had the balls to sleep during the ceremony. It was better for him considering the problem that arose and he didn't want to stress her out more than what she was at the moment.

He was texting Deets and Loogie. The joking comments on their group chat suddenly turned into chaos in a new group chat.

" _Burn: Ed's been reading us since Friday.  
Burn: I'm sure it's because of Fizz."_

" _Deets: tbh he could've been reading all this time through the notifications.  
Deets: If it's because of Fizz… it would make sense. She hasn't been the most responsive for the longest while."_

" _Loogie: burn, remember yesterday in the car?  
Loogie: when we found out we could track ed and fizz said something about him not wanting to be found?"_

" _Burn: Yeah?"_

" _Loogie: we were quick to judge fizz  
Loogie: maybe he doesn't WANT to be found  
Loogie: BUT"_

" _Burn: He wants to be helped?"_

" _Deets: He's in trouble?"_

" _Loogie: ed worries about her"_

The man rarely made sense unless it was a serious topic and even if that were the case, he never told the solution to the problem; just lead the way to it to see if his idea is foolish or not. Burn sat on that idea for a few minutes. He was sure Deets was also thinking about it.

He started replaying all of his memories of Ed and Fizz's friendship during their time at Dojo Deliveries. Whenever he was with Fizz, he would protect her if anything went wrong and would sacrifice himself for her in a heartbeat. Whenever he was in trouble, she already predicted it and had an array of goodies to help Ed withstand the fight.

" _Deets: When Fizz got in trouble, he would give up his life for her…"_

They were in the same page.

" _Deets: But he wasn't in the Dojo when we were attacked."_

It hit him.

" _Burn: He didn't get there on time!"_

" _Deets: He should have super speed by now!"_

" _Burn: Okay, but hear me out!  
Burn: What if he came after everything was done and over with?  
Burn: We never confirmed Fizz was fine, but she confirmed to him she was fine because she saw the conversation.  
Burn: What if he felt guilty that he didn't save her in time?"_

He didn't waste five years in a bachelor and a few years in police academy for nothing. In his mind, he deserved that high honor medal in his graduation after this sleuthing.

" _Deets: He wouldn't make that mistake twice."_

* * *

Burn was slowly finding out just who were his friend's family members. He was sure one of them was an old science professor he had in his first year in PCU. A few of the names rang a bell from the news and some books he had to write essays on. Sienna, her mother, was the founder, owner, and well-known head engineer for Hygiea Robotics.

They both waited near the bar area for their drinks as they weren't fancying the champagne or the red wine. While Fizz monitored the bartender as he masterfully concocted their drinks, he looked at the multitude of people. Even though he dressed for the occasion, he felt overwhelmed by the others around him. Their confident aura surpassed his own profusely—these people were rich and high-class.

"Fran, are you an _heiress_?" he questioned as he stared at Fizz's mother uncomfortably having a conversation with the bride. Even Sienna didn't get along with her own family.

"What makes you say that? A family of ginger scientists?"

"C'mon, I remember you getting cool stuff on Package Day!" He remembered that he could tell just how well-off each teen was just by their gifts. The girls usually had the more expensive gifts, but he knew their parents worked in high-demanding industries.

She sighed. "Maybe… I dunno. I'm not so keen on inheriting my mom's shop. I'm into weaponry, not robotics."

"But you're good with bots."

"Thanks to her, actually. I used to hang around her job back in Solaris and in her own shop. I saw with what she worked with."

Solaris? Now _that's_ an old robotics lab he didn't expect to hear from again… especially from Fizz. Bedlam had bought the corporation years ago, but was her mother working there during that time or did she jumped ship the minute Bedlam took over?

He suddenly realized where he was. He found out why Fizz wasn't fond of her extended family. He discovered why she always changed her reason for hating Bedlam and being in the Dojo.

Bureaucrats.

They were all bureaucrats!

He squeezed her arm. Something about it seemed wrong. It felt urgent… troubled. She turned towards him. His orange eyes were focused, serious and hurt. He didn't want to be there anymore.

The bartender returned with their drinks. Oh, they would need it after this little discovery.

Fizz gave Burn his drink and later held her own. "C'mon, let's get out of here." She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the beach. She noticed a man-made rocky road that led up somewhere. They followed it to a white-wooden bench hidden away and surrounded by the local flora and bindweed.

She sat down and urged her partner to do the same. The cold breeze in this beach was nice; not so hard, but not weak. The waves crashing to the shore gave them some background noise if it ever got quiet or awkward between them.

She was about to start the conversation when she was interrupted right away by Burn. "And you gave Sarah shit for her parents."

She shrugged. "I thought it was obvious a little self-deprecating and hypocrite humor was involved there." For the first time ever, it didn't felt like a confrontation. This was getting her family's secret off her chest for the first time in years.

"Your mom was involved with _Bedlam_?"

She took a sip of her booze. This was going to be a _long_ story and the glass wasn't big enough for all the alcohol she needed for this explanation. "Solaris made an illegal binding contract with Bedlam for him to use Solaris' best engineers for his plans. Mom was one of them." Her tone changed a bit to boast about her mother. He could tell she held her mother in high regards. "Pretty much all she had to do was follow orders. She got the schematics from Bedlam's lair and had to build for him."

"The schematics… you mean, the blueprints." There was a pause between them as he put two and two together. "The blueprints you always got on Package Day were Bedlam's schematics?"

"Wow, Brandon, why aren't you commander-in-chief of Eastern by now?" She smirked and she drank once more. "Yeah, the ones in my living room, if you hadn't noticed. Solaris didn't build _all_ the Bedlam bots, so I did have to scan a few robots."

"So you mean to tell me you didn't find out the robots' weaknesses on your own? This was your mom sending you the schematics and pointing out the flaws."

"Well… she built the flaws in hopes of making these robots weaker. It was more of a mother-daughter undercover self-destruct type of deal we had going on. She built the flawed robots, we exploited them, and she got off Solaris for building faulty bots."

He drank half of the glass. His reality of his time at the Dojo was collapsing in on itself. "And you never told us… why?" Now he was hurt that his female best friend never told him her motives on being with Dojo Deliveries. He thought about it and he was hurt that his own mentor, Ol' Skool, probably knew and didn't say a word as well. He thought he knew the old man better than that, but he kept on being surprised.

"Ol' Skool wanted me to tell you guys, but it was ultimately my decision. I didn't want you guys thinking I would be a double-crossing spy considering how involved Mom was with these robots. I didn't want you guys to treat me differently. I just… didn't want you guys to hate me."

Oh. Brandon should have known she meant no harm. She probably didn't want them to worry after hearing how bad Deets' incident was.

"It's not my fault that I was born into this family. I couldn't really redeem them if they knew already what they were getting into." She pointed at the barn with her drink. "But I just wanted to redeem my mom's honor. She never wanted to get involved at all! It just… happened. Happened ironically. My dad couldn't do much; a volcanologist is such a humble job in comparison to engineering. So I did the best next thing."

"You joined the Dojo."

She nodded as she downed the last of her drink. She cleared her throat while she felt it sting by the alcohol.

"My mom managed to work sometime with Deets' parents. When they left Bedlam's side, they explained who helped them. I was so confused an old man owning a courier business would get involved with destroying a tyrant, but it just had to be done. We all planned it. She would send me every bit of information on the robots she could and I rallied this info to Ol' Skool and you guys during battle."

His image of how the Dojo worked completely changed. He thought he was well-invested on his crew, but Fizz had practically lined them up for success from her arrival. She was the most-involved individual in that group and he just found out to what extent.

No wonder the girl was so stressed out. He was stressed out just thinking about it!

"And you guys thought I can't lie." She scoffed and smirked.

"To your defense, you just didn't explain your situation." He felt relieved that those years were over for her. She was slowly letting go.

"Don't flatter me. I know what I did."


	13. Chronic

There was a silhouette hidden between the palms and flora a few meters away. Any other person couldn't hear the pair's conversation, but he could hear it clear as day. It had been a year since he's heard Fizz's voice. Also a year since he's seen her in person.

It was nostalgic. Heartwarming. He was glad she was safe.

He missed her terribly.

Ed heard a motor flying towards his direction. He cursed under his breath that he didn't have his invisible belt with him to make a smooth escape. The motor stopped and he heard a few footsteps. He knew who had discovered him.

"Don't come near me, Sarah… please."

Her jetpack returned itself into a passive position. "You were a little careless these last few days," she explained as she pulled out her phone. "Any newbie hacker could triangulate positions using social media messages. You could find Burn, who you knew was with Fizz, and I could insinuate you headed here to check up on her."

She could see Ed a bit clearer after he moved a bit closer to where the moon shone between the palm leaves. He was just a tad taller than Fizz. His electric blue eyes were still a bit bigger than usual and still gave him that innocent and naive look to his stubbled face. His hair was a bit more relaxed than before, but overgrown for not having a haircut in a year. His figure was still trim and visible through his blue and black bodysuit.

"How are you, Ed?" she asked in a calm voice. She hoped to not scare him away, but to have enough seriousness to understand how his friends felt.

"I've had better days."

She took a peek of what Ed was looking over by the beach. "I would love to tell you that Fizz has been doing fine since you left, but I don't want to lie just to comfort you."

"It's okay, I've known." He sighed. "I didn't have high expectations for her to get better while I was away. No matter how much I comforted her before I left, she never believed in herself." He tried his best to imitate Fizz's voice. "Fuck Bedlam, fuck the city, let's change our names and leave! Let's move to Greenland, nobody lives there! I wanna be with you forever, please don't do this to me! What am I gonna do without you?"

"You were her life!" she exclaimed. "What did you expect? She fucking loves you and one day, you suddenly leave! She's _heartbroken_ , Ed! You kicked her depression into high-gear! She blames herself for everything! She lashes out at people just so she can simmer on her self-loathing alone."

"And what do you want me to do? Stay with her forever and doom us all? Don't you think this was a hard decision for me?"

There was a pause between them. Deets was breathing heavily from arguing. Ed glared at her. He was hurt that she would insinuate he was impulsive and uncaring towards his lover.

"Don't you think I hate myself for abandoning her? Don't you think I miss spending time with her and her parents? Don't you think I miss hanging out with you guys?" There was another pause. "I didn't ask for this! I didn't ask to be created to protect the world. I was okay with where I was: I had a job, I was studying, I was with Frances, we got to see you guys every once in a while…" He sighed.

Deets sighed of relief. Ed did mature after all this time. He was aware that his actions had consequences. He was also aware that his destiny was clashing with his happiness and self-fulfillment to live a normal human life. She finally understood what was running through his brain.

"I told Fizz the other day she was acting just like you." Ed looked up at her. "And now I see you're rambling just like her. I guess we need to have a new saying: "Like Ed, like Fizz"." He smirked; he was very amused by that.

"I love her, okay? I don't want her to worry about me, but I knew it would happen no matter what." He pulled out a very familiar dark navy orb. "I need to find all the artifacts and install them correctly this time around before Bedlam gets his hands on them."

"And what happens after Bedlam?"

He looked at her with the same sadness and remorse Fizz had when she was in her lab. "Wait for the next one."

* * *

"So… you wanna get out of here?"

"I haven't gotten buzzed yet!" Fizz whined and sighed. "Fine, I'm over being here." She laid herself on Burn's chest. "If we can continue where we left off on the beach; that would be great."

He chuckled. "Didn't I owe you something?"

She smiled. "You read my mind." She kissed him lightly on the lips. "But before we leave…" She grabbed Burn's hand and held them tightly. "We're taking away the booze. The tequila, the whiskey, the rum, whatever we can get our hands on. Nobody's gonna be drinking those tonight except us."


	14. Coitation

Frances woke up. She was in an odd-position, uncovered… and dressed? Her throbbing head gave away their failed coitus. Too drunk to do anything and passed out in bed. She cursed herself for her stupid idea of stealing all the liquor from the venue's bar last night.

She slowly walked towards the bathroom. When she opened the door, she grabbed onto the counter and made her way to the toilet. She shoved two fingers into her throat until she expelled her stomach contents into the water. This wasn't her first rodeo.

Feeling a bit better, she grabbed whatever mouthwash Burn had on his bathroom counter and rinsed herself off. She found some aspirin in the mirror cabinet and took one for good measure. When she was leaving the bathroom to look for her luggage bag, she saw Burn slightly move in bed groaning.

"This was those vodka shots." She rested on the bathroom door's frame.

"No more TV guide shots…" He rolled over to finally look at Fizz's disheveled mess.

"It's the good memories that count!"

"Chunking out cake wasn't a good memory." He raised his eyebrows and met with his migraine. He slowly lifted himself off the bed. "How are you standing up with no problem?"

"This was a usual thing we did when we had a bad week." She rummaged through her luggage and found her toothbrush. "But I can say I took a tiny bit too much vodka this time around."

Burn sat on his bed as he reoriented himself. He was five steps away from his bathroom; he could do it! He stood up from his bed normally, only to slump back down into it when his vision got messed up.

"You need help?" She walked up to him and held his side and his shoulders. "You need to hold your weight on this one. I haven't gotten your workout routine yet." She smirked at him.

He stood up with Fizz's help. She directed him to the bathroom and kneeled him down in front of the toilet. While he did his thing, she brushed her teeth. She imagined something completely different than this moment.

She imagined waking up in his strong arms after a long night of sex. His hot breath warmed her forehead. Her body touching his toned torso as she wrapped her legs between his. Burn's amber eyes opened drowsily to the realization of the night before and looking down to see his partner and best friend caressing him. He tightened his grip on her and slowly leaned in to kiss her.

The sound of the toilet flushing got her out of her daydream. She spat the foam in her mouth and walked away to make space for Burn on the bathroom counter. Fizz sat on his bed and crossed her legs. She was frustrated—completely and utterly frustrated. To be completely honest with herself, she was aroused after imagining what could've happened.

"I gotta tell you, man, I feel like the lack of sex last night is a normal issue for you," Fizz finally admitted to him after she couldn't take her arousal any longer. "No wonder you can't get a chick to stay for more than a month."

Burn came out of the bathroom astonished with her comments. "Excuse you?" He was clearly offended by her statement.

She mockingly sighed. "How unfortunate!"

In an instant, he pinned her to the bed. He was going to make it up to her. She giggled before she kissed him. He kissed her back a bit roughly. She pushed him to the best of her abilities to start unbuttoning his shirt. He took the opportunity to slip off her sweater dress.

Her underwear revealed something he had on the back of his mind for the entire day. He cackled a bit while she raised an eyebrow. "I knew you weren't that top heavy."

"Hey, I couldn't let them have some other shit to critique me about." She got rid of her strapless bra in one fell swoop, relieving herself of the tightness she was experiencing on her chest for more than 12 hours. She massaged her smaller breast from the sharp pains of underwire.

Burn pinned her once again. He kissed her roughly again, but she didn't mind at all. His lips slowly went south.

"Of course, because they weren't sore enough!" She groaned as he reached her breasts. She could tell by the few minutes it had started that this was completely different experience than her intimacy with Ed. She liked how much he believed in her body's tolerance to his roughness. For the first time ever, he wasn't being overly protective over her.

Her hands wandered from his thick back to his waist. She tried to reach the hook of his dress pants, but failed miserably because of her short arms. She shoved him off her.

While he was confused by her actions, she kneeled down to finally unfasten the hook from his pants, only to realize there was a hidden button as well. He laughed at her frustration. "Has it been that long?"

"Shut up." She finally unbuttoned and unzipped his pants. She tried to pull them off in one fell swoop, but failed once again.

He laughed uncontrollably and even harder than before.

She tugged a few more times and successfully pulled them off along with his underwear. She stared at him while she stroked his member. Oh, _now_ he was quiet! She licked from the base to the head before putting her entire mouth on his shaft.

He groaned. He kept on being impressed by her antics. That mouth was her most dangerous weapon to date! She bobbed her head up and down while staring at him. He moaned when he glanced down. That was a sight to behold. "Fuck…" he muttered under his hot breath.

She loved hearing his reaction. Instant gratification.

He tugged on her waist to turn her bottom half towards his face. She looked down between their bodies to watch him flick her clit. She shoved her genitals closer to his face so he could actually pleasure her better. She continued to bob her head on his cock.

He repeated the redhead's same tactic. He licked from the bottom to her bulb. He could tell she liked that by the way her mouth hummed on him. He kept on playing with her with his mouth for a while longer until he could tell she was ready. "You're so wet…"

"I need this, okay?" She got off of him and he squirmed to his night table to pick out a condom. She hugged his side and kissed him between his neck and his shoulder. Some of her hair fell on his chest in the process.

He lay down on his bed after protecting himself. He placed her on top of him. "You do it."

She tousled and turned so he was on top of her. "No, no! _You_ do it, please! I need it so badly!" He never expected her to be submissive about it, but then again she did say she hadn't been with someone for a long while.

He aligned himself to her while she rushed him by crossing her legs over his ass. He slipped into her ever so easily. She moaned very loudly—louder than what he would imagine her tone could be during sex. He shushed her. "I have neighbors," he whispered.

"I don't care," she whined as she used her legs to push him even further inside of her. She groaned on his shoulder to muffle her delight. He started moving slowly to get adjusted to her tightness.

At least he proved her wrong for once… and she wasn't biting back with some snarky comment.

He moved in a faster pace. She shrieked loudly through each thrust. Remembering what he said, she bit on his collarbone to muffle her voice.

"You fuck!" he exclaimed as he rolled her over the bed.

She shushed him. "You have neighbors," she whispered and smiled.

"You're lucky I wear a uniform under my suit." He raised her hips up from the bed. He penetrated her from behind.

She moaned on his pillow and gripped tightly on his bedsheets. It went in even deeper than before.

His hands held her waist tightly as he slowly leaned down on her back and gently kissed behind her neck. He thrusted slower and slower until he was at a complete stop still kissing her neck.

She moaned out of pleasure and frustration. Her hips gyrated on his member to continue on with the intercourse, but he had other ideas. He kissed the nook of her neck and she groaned. He nibbled on her neck while she was distracted.

She couldn't hold out both their weights and they collapsed on the bed. He turned her on her side and continued to penetrate her that way.

"Please!" she hollered. Her body bounced on each thrust. She twitched and gasped. Her back arched in pleasure. She let out one long moan before she collapsed on the bed.

He couldn't take her squeezing and spasm and also climaxed. He groaned on her neck and kissed her there before he collapsed.

"Brandon…" the redhead groaned.

Her partner was gasping for air. He joked to her about how much time she hadn't had sex that he forgot he was on the same boat. "Yeah…"

"You're gonna have to carry me… I don't think I can walk."

He calmed down his breathing. He sat up from the bed and looked down at Fizz. A few strands of her hair stuck themselves to her sweaty glistening body. She looked at him very attentively of what he was about to do. He scooped her up from the bed and held her in his arms.

"I wasn't insinuating right now!"

"We have stuff to do."

"I thought the plan was chunking out all day!"

"Not exactly…"

* * *

The sea lay calm in the early afternoon. The redhead, dressed in a light blue bikini, floated on the ocean. Her eyes were closed and her body was relaxed. Her hair was tamer than usual, floating neatly around her face and over her shoulders.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." Her eyes opened up, meeting with the sun. "And heavier is the body."

* * *

 **End of Act 1**


End file.
